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Happy New Year everybody! It's now 2022 (or "2020: 2 - The Sequel") and what better time to take a look back at all the things that happened in 2021, which has been a wild year in terms of toys and collectibles. So much new action figures! Many announcements! Wow! Here are a few points that made 2021 so undeniably 2021: DELAYS, THE CARGO SHIP CLUSTERF$@#! It's been a rough year for container ships. Cargo ships are full, ports struggle to unload them, boats have to wait for days, weeks, months... which means that our toys keep getting delayed all the time. Because of that, all the brands are starting to act like MAFEX or Mezco, with figures planned in January coming out in November. (Don't worry though, MAFEX and Mezco are still champions in that category). MCFARLANE TOYS: DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF FIGURES, DOUBLE THE FUN! In the wrap-up of 2020, we were already astonished that McFarlane Toys produced 49 figures in the first year of the new DC Multiverse line. 49 figures in 2020 was wild, right? Well... In 2021, over a hundred came out! 100+! And that's just the DC Multiverse line, we are not counting the Spawn, Mortal Kombat, Warhammer 40k, Princess Bride (!), Witcher, etc... figure lines that are also appearing on our store's pegs. Oh, and in case you thought it would slow down, it's January 3rd and there are already 79 figures announced for 2022... "Okay, from now one, I will pick and choose", he said... (Special thanks to @krysalid on instagram for the permission to use his checklists!) LET THERE BE LEGENDS! Hasbro also had a very productive year. While the very popular G.I.Joe Classified line saw about 15-16 new figures released in 2021, the Marvel Legends team said "Hold my beer" and released waves on top of other waves, so much so that some stores were carrying 4-5 different waves all at once! Between the Disney+ wave, the Spider-verse wave, the Super Villains wave (which gave us The Hood, aka the real toy of the year), the Ursa Major (or Build-a-bear) wave, the Shang Chi wave, the House of X wave, the Eternals wave, the What if? wave, a second Age of Apocalypse wave and the Armadillo wave, along with a couple retro Spider-man and Fantastic Four waves, those Marvel Legends shelves were always plentiful. Add a few store exclusive, pulse exclusive, single releases and 3 packs and you've got close to 100 new Marvel Legends figures in 2021. My wallet! It hurts! 2021 WAS SO HARD ON THE KNEES... The knee seems to have been the Achilles's heel for a few company this year. First, NECA released the long awaited April O'Neil figure from the 90's TMNT movie line, and... well, her knees left a lot to be desired. Later that year, the Haslab Sentinel finally arrived to those who participated in the campaign, and the first few units seemed to have floppy knees. Luckily, a quick fix with a screwdriver would solve (temporarily?) the issue. I don't want to sound (k)needy, but the knee articulation on a toy has been around for a certain number of years, and it should be a given at this point, no? CROWFUNDING IN 2021 There were so many toy related crowdfunding campaigns this year. SO MANY! Kickstarter "kickstarted" the Animal Warriors of the Kingdom by Spero Studios, the Futuristic Combat Soldiers by Invincible Toys, and the RoboSkull MkII, to name a few. Hasbro also had several projects ongoing as part of their HasLab campaigns, such as a gigantic Galactus figure for the Marvel Legends line, a replica of the Ghostbusters proton pack, or the Skystriker combat jet. Unfortunately, not all projects reached their goal, or some were cancelled before the end. We'll pour one out in their memories, and hope they'll eventually come back in some shape or form. Here's to you, Rancor! What were the highlights of 2021 for you? Let us know in the comments! More news at 11:00... 2022 style!

It's being reported by Variety that this year's San Diego Comic Con like last year will be held virtually due to the COVID pandemic. There are indications that the con organizers will try to organize some type of in-person event in November. Stay-tuned for more details to be revealed on all of this in the coming days.

Mezco today announced their Virtual Toy Fair 2021 Event which they say will take place on February 20-22. They teases reveals, exclusive and giveaways for the event. Stay-tuned for more details to be released soon.

Shown below are images from the Wonder Festival Winter 2021 virtual event showing the Threezero figures put up on display. Check out all the images below.

Super7 today posted this image teasing a number of new licenses they will be working on in 2021. They say that next Monday will start The Super7 Days of Teasers when they'll be sharing new licenses and product announcements. From the image they posted below we can make out the first line as ThunderCats. We already told you yesterday how it seemed pretty clear and Ultimates 7" Thundertank was coming. The second line which is mostly pink is unclear to me what that could be. The third line is clearly for Silverhawks. We will probably end up seeing both Ultimates and ReAction figures in the coming days for SilverHawks. The fourth line is unclear to me, but many people seem to think it is Godzilla. If so then these will probably be for the ReAction line. The fifth line is clearly the Enterprise D from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I don't know if this means they are doing figures or vehicles. If figures then my guess they would be for the ReAction line. The sixth line is unclear to me but many I see are guessing Power Rangers. If so then again I would guess for the ReAction line. The seventh and final line is the Mummy Boy mascot. Let us know your thoughts on these and if you see anything else in the teaser image below.

Mark your calendars for January 29, 2021 at 11am ET for the first Hasbro Fan Friday Live-Stream of the new year, and things kick off with Star Wars. We will of course have full coverage right here on JI for anything new revealed.

With a new year upon us, it seems like the dreaded price increase for Hasbro's 6" action figure lines is also upon us as well. Earlier today we were treated to our first Marvel Legends pre-order for 2021, and with that many couldn't help but notice the increase in price from the normal $19.99 to $22.99. I've been doing some checking, and while not officially confirmed by Hasbro yet, this price increase seems to be for all Marvel Legends releases as well as other 6" lines like Hasbro's Star Wars Black Series. I haven't checked on every single 6" line Hasbro does, or other scales of figures from Hasbro, so I can't say for sure how it will impact things like Power Ranger, G.I. Joe Classified or even smaller scale lines or things like Transformers. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see some kind of price hike all across the board. From what I can tell you should expect to see prices increase with products seeing release around July time frame. While seeing prices increase is never a good thing, it should also be noted that Hasbro has held off on increasing their prices for these things for several years, and truth is the prices only go up on these things, not down. I also don't know what kind of impact these price hikes will have at the big box stores like Walmart and Target. Those stores often are given discounts the smaller guy doesn't get, just because they order so much more inventory, and they could likely take on a price increase without raising prices on the consumer, at least for a while just to try and thin out the competition. Small retailers don't have that luxury, so this kind of thing tends to hurt them more than the larger stores. We will have to wait and see how all this plays out.